The present invention relates to a system for irradiating flowable material, particularly sewage sludge. The system includes an insert which has at least one radiation source and which is disposed inside an irradiation chamber.
A system of this type is known from German Accepted Published Patent Application (Auslegeschrift) No. 2,208,160. This known system includes a cylindrical irradiation chamber with a likewise cylindrical insert disposed coaxially therein to divide the irradiation chamber into two coaxial compartments. The radiation sources are disposed in the wall of the cylindrical insert. With this known system the treatment of the product can be effected only in batches. For this purpose, the irradiation chamber is filled with the material which is subsequently stirred for a certain period of time with the aid of a winged screw and then discharged. Such batch-wise operation has the drawback that relatively long idle periods (fill times and discharge times), during which the radiation sources are not or at least not fully utilized, cannot be avoided. Furthermore, in this known system there is a danger that the commingled material may separate, resulting in a non-uniform irradiation. The possibility of such an occurrence cannot be completely eliminated even by reversal of the direction of rotation of the winged screw.